Final Report

          We recently visited MOMA PS1 to view artworks from different artists. One piece that stood out to me the most was created by Samara Golden. It is an instillation piece named The Flat Side of the Knife. This is the first instillation piece I have ever seen up close and personally. Right before the instillation is a description which mentioned how the artists tries to explore the sixth dimension where everything exists and nothing is impossible. A gateway to locked information we haven't tuned into so we aren't aware of. Samara Golden is quoted saying , '' I hope my work can be like a door that opens to there times or moods''. I think she wants her work to be used as a trigger to discover new insight or come to realizations of universal and conscious truth.
        At soon as I stopped reading and focused my attention on the instillation I was blown away. It is amazing work, and it seemed very well thought out. It seems like 3 floors in which the artists fills up with beds, stairway ways, sofas , lamps , tables and more objects from everyday items found around a house. It is not any ordinary instillation though. The unique thing about it is how the pieces are glued to the ceiling, making it seem as the wall is upside down. The bottom floor is then made up of strictly mirrors instead of tiles or carpet. By doing this the artist Samara Golden creates the illusion that what is on the ceiling is on the floor because it is being reflected.
     It almost gives the viewer the sense that the room never ends and everything is connected in one way or another. I think the artist wants the viewer to step away from regular methods of thinking and start seeing reality in a new light with new possibilities and her pieces as examples of what could be or what is happening but not visual to the eye. I feel the artist statement was very accurate as I can sense the feeling of trying to awaken our conscious spirits. Making us realize theres more to life than logic, almost hinting at magic and the supernatural.
     I think that might be why it is named flat side of the knife. We don't really use the flat side of the knife just like we don't really use our 3rd eyes or conscious minds. We find things we cannot see or use as useless and discredit it. This helps society focus more on spirituality and understanding what is still not clear. Helping us discover and evolve.
    Samara Golden's artwork is very creative because to think of making a floor out of glass to mirror the top which is designed purposely to be viewed in its opposite is genius. She used the stairs to almost give the vibe that the space was infinite and many doors to go in and out of. The mirrors gave a sense of repetition as it reflected objects already seen, making space feel like it was visual transfer from one dimension to another. The video in the instillation played a visual of waves on the wall with ocean sounds. Oceans represent deepness which her piece is really deep and is made to be in order to discover what has not yet been found. It helps put dimensions into perspective and almost subconsciously triggers you to think.
      I am grateful to have viewed this piece personally on many levels. Samara Golden's : The Flat Side of the Knife helps me see the world as unlimited. It unmasks the physical realm and points out how our eyes can deceive us because we cannot grasp what lies beyond our dimensions. It helps open up our minds and put us in a curious and optimistic mindset.

Outline

ROBERT GOBER Bibliography :
       

Robert Gober is an American artist who works primarily in sculpture, installation, and photography. He was born on September 12, 1954, in Wallingford, Connecticut. All of his work is made by hand in his studio with a lot of attention to detail. All of his work is made from scratch. His work is often based on  familiar objects from around his home or studio. Such figures include Sinks, doors, cribs, chairs, and body parts. His work is very deep being as though he rarely tries to make it obvious. He likes to think of is work as perverse which is a desire to behave unreasonable.

• He has been inspired by artists such as Marcel Duchamp and his 1917 piece named fountain.

Robert Gober has said , ‘‘What is, for the first time a discovery of putting something into words, loses meaning the second time.’’ which could mean that once you label something as this is what it is… you limit it from other interpretations or inspiration. His earlier works were titled and then he decided to have them all untitled. He wanted to hold back and not direct people to a certain focus but let them arrive to a conclusion on their own. 

Robert Gober Quote

For the most part, the objects that I choose are almost all emblems of transition; they’re objects that you complete with your body, and they’re objects that, in one way or another, transform you. Like the sink, from dirty to clean; the beds, from conscious to unconscious; rational thought to dreaming; the doors transform you in the sense that you were speaking of, moving from one space through another. 

Outline

1.Three Urinal.1988

2.Untitled Closet . 1989

3.Untitled (Leg).1989-90

4.Double Sink. 1984

5.The Bedroom

Source:

OCTOBER 23, 2014 Robert Gober in time www.moma.org/explore/inside_out/robert-gober-in-time

Robert Gober Retrospective at Schaulager Basel
https://youtu.be/VxgzJYb-dVk

2014 

Als, Hilton, Robert Gober, Claudia Carson, and Paulina Pobocha. Robert Gober: The Heart Is Not a Metaphor. Edited by Ann Temkin. New York: The Museum of Modern Art, 2014.

Bill Viola :

Viola's themes are usually dealing with dualism. Contrasting opposites in abstract ways. Majority of his works deals with either life and death, stressed or calm, light and dark and quiet or loud. One example of this can be from his ocean without a shore theme. He made the piece give off the impression that spirits were crossing from the non physical world to the physical world with the water representing a clear barrier. When the white plain colored subjects cross through the water they suddenly become alive and have color and are visible. Giving the impression that behind the veil exists a world that cannot be seen or heard until it is born. A lot of people also interpret it as people coming back from the dead.

Bill Viola : An Ocean without a Shore

I feel he relates a lot of his work with water and a metamorphosis/transformation to his past experience.
When Bill Viola was 6 years old he nearly drowned in a lake while on vacation with his family. Bill Viola describes the experience as ''… the most beautiful world I’ve ever seen in my life” and “without fear,” and “peaceful”.
Viola's videos have been dealing with the inner or spiritual-self and the boundaries of consciousness. Exploring themes of birth, death, self-discovery and personal transformation.

Another piece that lead me to that conclusion was a piece called Acceptance, 2008. In this piece you see a suffering soul go through a waterfall. The setting is dark with light only focusing on the subjects body and facial expressions as the water makes the form clear to see. When the subject is done passing through the water, she is no longer suffering and has found a sense of peace and relief. The water can be seen as representing life, meaning the subject was going through life and when it was all over..... It wasn't as bad as it seemed.

Bill Viola: Acceptance,2008

In the piece named The Encounter, Bill Viola shows two women one elderly and one younger walking down two different lanes both leading to the same crossroads. Towards the end the 2 women meet and the elderly woman gives the younger woman a gift. The elderly woman than walks back through the younger woman lane while the younger woman walks through the elderly woman lane. I interpreted this as 2 woman both young and old on their journey through life. During the exchange it felt as if the elderly woman was gifting the younger lady with wisdom to prepare her. When the changed directions I took it as a symbol of the younger lady becoming mature and the elderly lady not taking life so serious anymore.

Bill Viola: The Encounter:

Bill Viola was quoted saying "I am interested in what the old masters didn't paint, those steps in between." This statement might have led to most of his great visual pieces where he captures the moments nobody really notices after the final product. In his series The Quintet of the Astonished he does just that. He records 5 different actors and their facial expressions during a time lapse. The audience has a chance to see how the picture develops. How the artist got to the paint that they are presented with in ordinary art.

Bill Viola: The Quintet of the Astonished

Cubism / Pop Art

Pablo Picasso , Cubism
Interior with a Girl Drawing  1935
Oil on Canvas

 The cubism style was developed through artists Pablo Picasso and Georges Braque. It challenged the conventions of representation in painting with geometric planes and compressed space. They usually made their work abstract while still keeping clues that identified the subjects with uses of shapes to redefine the structure of the subject.

This piece by Pablo Picasso is very easy on the eyes for me. To me the colors are very complimentary complimenting the green contrasts with an obvious purple image in the center. The face and body parts as well as painting inside of this are broken into fractions. At first the girl might seem to have 2 faces but it is broken into pieces while still maintaining attached. The canvas in the painting can be seen as an uneven square with lines overlapping where one ends another begins. Even the figure in the background who has no clear figure of a human with their bodies shaped however the artist feels appropriate wether accurate or not. I feel this piece symbolizes a cubism artist practicing what is most natural to them. The green gives off that natural feel. It gives off a sense of calming nature.

Andy Warhol , Pop Art
Campbell's Soup 1962
Synthetic Polymer Paint on Canvas
 
  Pop Arts style is more of a mockery or an ode to pop culture. They seem to turn propaganda into art. Turning advertisements we are fed in everyday life wether through television , billboards or flyers into works of art challenging our view on the world and society  as consumers.

This piece by Andy Warhol symbolizes societies passion for advertising. He is painting cans of campbell soup which are medium sized paintings that make you feel as if your are browsing through a supermarket catalogue. The colors are simple and accurate to the product. He does not add anything different but stays true to the product of campbell. They are the center of attention with no background or any other figure to throw you off of the main focus. Which is the fact that we love to be sold something. He capitalizes by remaking each can but just adding a different flavor making it a whole new painting.

Nancy Spero Bio

Nancy Spero was a visual artist. She was born in Cleveland, Ohio. Later on she moved to Chicago but lived most it was in New York City where she lived most of her life. She was married to a fellow artist named Leon Golub, who was an american painter.  Nancy Spero  collaborated frequently with her husband on numerous works such as They Will Torture You, My Friend, From Conspiracy, The Artist As Witness in 1971. She has been known to say that her husband was her partner and was very much in love with his artwork and has credited him to her influence on politics. Her husband Leon Golub was said to thrown in many pieces of politics in his pieces. She has said that his works are huge and as much as she tried to compete with him she realized she could only do her best and her best was small images sometimes up to an inch tall.

They Will Torture You, My Friend, From Conspiracy, The Artist As Witness in 1971

Nancy Spero is known as both an artist and an activist as well as feminist. With a career spanning over 50 years and continues to work and channel her views on politics, social and cultural concerns. Many of her artworks have been inspired by the affects of war and impact it has on people. As well as replacing societies opinion of a male chauvinist world by replacing important figure representatives such as Egyptian hieroglyphs to Greek statues with females. 

Nancy Spero quote, ‘’ I like to think that my work is easily read but on the other hand, I do hope it is more complicated and that it is not just one easy read and thats it.’’

She was very active in her work around the same time the civil rights movement started and The Vietnam War was underway. Nancy Spero painted blotches of touches and ink, executed with rapid movements to symbolize the destruction of war. To me I think it depicts how war can be so messy and happen so fast leaving nothing but destruction. Most of her work depicted violence and gore sometimes. They are a apart of her war series which lasted from 1967 to 10970 and condemns war and sheds light on its negative and lasting consequences.

Nancy Spero signature became known as stamped typography and collage, using a technique of painting or drawing isolated images on blank sheets of paper. Capturing a raw intensity. Spero was very big on women rights and became active in  Women Artists in Revolution and in 1972 co-founded Artists in Residence (A.I.R) Gallery which is a cooperative exhibition space in New York Ciy for women artists.

Being renown for her work she has received numerous awards. Such awards include The Lifetime Achievement Award from the College of Art Association, the Honor Award from the Women’s Caucus for Art, the Hiroshima Art Prize and the Skowhegan Medal just to name a few. Some of her most famous works are known as the Torture of Women, Notes in Time on Women and The First Language.  

The Torture of Women

 

Notes in Time on Women

The First Language.  

Photomontage

'' Topsy-Turvey ''

Impressionism and Post Impressionism

Impressionism is a 19th century art movement which originated in France. Artists would create landscape paintings of what they saw which became impressionist paintings. The focus of impressionism is usually to capture the essence of light as it hits an object. Impressionist paintings consists of small and consistent brush strokes, drawing attention to the idea of movement. The artist were known as impressionists and would paint outside. Painting ouside limited their time to mix colors therefore they were forced to paint more quickly to keep up with the changing daylight. As a result their works seemed to come off as messy or unpolished. The painters focused on making the color and contrast stand out, to catch the viewers eye like it would in real life.

‘ Woman with a Parasol ‘

Claude Monet

1875

Oil paint   

Post Impressionism was based of impressionism but steers away from the traditional style. Most of these painters painted in isolation. They strayed away from the naturalism of impressionism and focused more on color, lines, forms and shapes. Generalizing their perception of the image being seen and portraying it for the viewer to see as well. Each artist uniquely displayed their artistic expression through their paintings. They used the same idea as impressionists but gave it their own spin with new techniques to express their thoughts and emotion in art. This style later inspired two major movements such as cubism and fauvism. 

‘ Les Vessenots ‘ in Auvers

Vincent van Gogh

1890

Oil paint